5 Excellent Bar Crawls To Conquer in 2015

Allow us to introduce you to the concept of a "Barmuda Triangle." It's three (or so) bars that are roughly (okay, sometimes very roughly) equidistant, close enough to one another for their mutual gravitational pull to exert itself, and yet distinct enough in style, clientele, and offerings that each is a change from the others. Here are five you need to tackle now.

My wife and I had just finished dinner at Local 127 in Cincinnati, a fine modern American bistro with a good bar (since, alas, closed), and we stopped on our way out to ask the bartender where else was good to have a drink in town. He named a couple more restaurants with good cocktails and then mentioned, as an afterthought, a place called "O'Malley's in the Alley," adding apologetically that it was "kind of a dive."

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Then the manager chimed in. "You're not sending these nice folks into the Barmuda Triangle, are you?" Needless to say, our curiosity was piqued. Said Triangle, it turned out, was a trio of downtown dives arranged in such a way that once you went to O'Malley's(25 Ogden Place; 513-381-3114), an Irishy sort of place with friendly bartenders (thanks, Hal!) and liquor flowing like the nearby Ohio River, you were likely to go on to the spartanly appointed yet somehow comfortable joint Madonna's Bar & Grill (11 East Seventh Street; 513-621-8838), have a round or two, and then head over to Knock Back Nat's (10 West Seventh Street; 513-621-1000), a sports bar of sorts, but one where nobody seems to be watching TV and everyone is talking and carrying on.

Sometimes when you're out drinking, it's one or two and done; others, you're content to park yourself in some cozy corner and let the world go away, to lose yourself in conversation and let time stop for a while. But sometimes—gasp!—you're going to make an evening of it. The Barmuda Triangle is the minimum infrastructure for that evening. It helps greatly if one of the bars in the triangle has food. I've found Barmuda Triangles lurking in many other cities, too:

The bar at the new Normandie Club.

Facebook/TheNormandieClub

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Los Angeles

Los Angeles's Koreatown is a wild mash-up between the old art-deco Hollywood and a modern Pacific Rim city. If you start at the new Normandie Club(3612 West Sixth Street; 213-817-5321), you're in a craft-cocktail version of the 1930s, all light and shadow and low-key swank, plus drinks for people who can handle a snootful with aplomb. Frank 'n Hank(518 Western Avenue; 213-383-2087) is a 1950s-era (Anglo) old-man's bar gone young and Asian, and it couldn't be livelier; they even kept the cheap beer (yes) and blended whiskey (avoid). Jukebox. Pool table. From there, best to go full-on Korean, either to a local pojangmacha, or "covered wagon" (basically, a pub with food); try Dan Sung Sa(3317 West Sixth Street; 213-487-9100) or, even better, Saek Dong JuhGori (4083 West Third Street; 213-637-2345), which specializes in makgeolli, a cloudy rice beer, and jeon, griddle cakes with seafood and such. After that, you might need another cocktail.

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Three Dots and a Dash

Courtesy of Three Dots and a Dash

Chicago

Step One: Arrive on time for your first reservation at Three Dots and a Dash (435 North Clark Street; 312-610-4220).

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Step Two: Tiki drinks, Polynesian appetizers.

Step Three: Go to the bar at Sable (505 North State Street; 312-755-9704).

Step Four: Have a palate-cleansing Board of Directors (vermouth with a little Chartreuse), non-Polynesian appetizers.

Las Vegas

People may drink loads of booze in Las Vegas, but by and large it's not a great drinking town. A great many of its bars feel joyless and mechanical, as if they were just going through the motions for a crowd with its mind elsewhere.The Fireside Lounge at the Peppermill(2985 Las Vegas Boulevard South; 702-735-7635), which opened in 1972, is not like that. In fact, it's not like anything on earth: It's like drinking on the set of Space: 1999. Frankie's Tiki Room (1712 West Charleston Boulevard; 702-385-3110), which is completely fake (as are all Tiki bars) but also low-down and divey, seems like a slice of home. (It helps that the bartenders are truly skilled.) After all the sweet drinks, a clean, crisp martini at the craft-cocktail Velveteen Rabbit (1218 South Main Street; 702-685-9645) will reset your palate. At which point you're ready for the Peppermill again.

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Lavendar Lake in Brooklyn.

Courtesy of Lavendar Lake.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood is notorious for its political hothouse food co-op and the hysteria that surrounds its child rearing. Yet before all the little Calebs and Fleurs, it was an old working-class ethnic/bohemian neighborhood. Most of its original bars—Jackie's 5th Amendment, Timboo's, O'Connor's—have been swept away by the army of stroller pushers. Ironically, one of the best places to capture the old feel of the neighborhood opened in 1997, just as that army was sending in its first recon rangers. The Gate(321 Fifth Avenue; 718-768-4329) is a down-to-earth pint-and-whiskey joint with comfortable quarters, a mixed, low-key crowd, and a patio featuring some of the best people-watching in New York. A few blocks up Fifth Avenue liesBlueprint (196 Fifth Avenue; 718-622-6644), an under-the-radar craft-cocktail joint that's unusual for its unpretentious charm, its fine modern bar food, and, in the summer, its backyard. Then drop down across the notorious Gowanus Canal to the spacious Lavender Lake (383 Carroll Street; 347-799-2154), christened with one of the canal's old nicknames, which makes a good manhattan and has plenty of good beer and whiskey. Finally, Canal Bar(270 Third Avenue; 718-246-0011) is a warm, friendly dive with nice people and free popcorn.

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